EPA again orders repairs and water system upgrades at Oasis Mobile Home Park

As settlement to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in August 2023, The EPA on Thursday ordered the operators of Oasis Mobile Home Park in Thermal to upgrade the Park's drinking water and wastewater systems to make them safe and pay a $50,000 penalty.

Between 2019 and 2021 the EPA banned Oasis Mobile Home Park from using the underground reservoir there due to high levels of arsenic in the Park's drinking water, making the drinking water unsafe.

The ordered upgrades/improvements are listed in a consent decree lodged with the court by the Justice Department. The upgrades/improvements must be made over the next two years and include:

• Installation of alarms on the drinking water treatment system to monitor its operation;
• Addition of at least 80,000 gallons of water storage capacity;
• Installation of a booster pump and purchase of critical replacement parts;
• Ensuring that qualified public water system operators are at the Park seven days per week until the Park’s operators install the alarm system;
• Development of comprehensive standard operating procedures for the public water system;
• Mandatory quarterly meetings with EPA to review compliance progress with the consent decree; and
• Notification to EPA as soon as possible and no later than twenty-four hours if consent decree violations or other issues pose an immediate threat to public health or the environment.

 The consent decree also requires the Park operators to work with an EPA contractor to develop a wastewater system assessment which must be completed by March 2026. The operators must fix problems found during the wastewater system assessment after the Oasis drinking water system upgrades/improvements are done.

The consent decree is subject to a 30-day public comment period running from January 23, 2025 through February 24, 2025, and final court approval. Information on submitting comments and access to the settlement agreement is available on the Justice Department’s Proposed Consent Decree webpage.

 More information is available at EPA's Oasis Mobile Home Park Safe Drinking Water Act Consent Decree.

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